Passenger in transit

1982 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 20-25
Author(s):  
Tito Valenzuela

This second piece by a Latin American about exile explores through that experience many aspects of his people's ‘personality’ and the events leading to exile. Tito Valenzuela is a 37-year-old Chilean poet and … now … novelist. After studying painting and graphic design at the School of Fine Arts of the University of Chile in Santiago, he worked during the years of Salvador Allende's Popular Unity government in film-making and television. A book of his poetry was published in 1971, and more appeared in an anthology of work by young Chilean poets in 1972. At the time of the military coup of 11 September 1973 he was working on a film on the nitrate mining area of northern Chile. During the coup the military raided his home, removing books and manuscripts. After living clandestinely for several months, Tito left the country for Peru. Unable to remain there he took up an offer by the United Nations to go to Rumania. Finding the atmsophere there restrictive and stifling, he left for Sweden, where he worked in a ham factory, then travelled on to Berlin and finally London in 1975. After a long battle with British immigration authorities he was given permission to stay. Pasajero en transito (‘Passenger in Transil’) is Tito Valenzuelas's first novel, as yet unpublished. It concerns a young Chilean photographer, Ignacio (García, who is exiled (like the author) first in Bucharest and then in Stockholm. The protagonist's profession is itself an image of his psychological state, where the past freezes in the present, tending to mystification and distortion. By tracing Ignacio's obsessions in exile and the deterioration in the past of his relationship with Soledad … who disappears during the first days of the coup … the novel explores the Chile of both Allende and the months following the coup, as well as exile itself. The extract we publish finds Ignacio in Bucharest, playing chess with another exile, Pedro ‘El Peluca’ Morales, whose situation is also producing crisis and domestic rupture. Certain references need explanation. Chileans make great use of nicknames, and most of the characters are referred to by these. El Peluca means ‘the wig’. Loco ‘crazy’ and El Caluga ‘the candy’ (as in sweet). Others have been translated - The Philologist, the Marquis. Coco is untranslatable. Huevón is the all-purpose Chilean interpolation, used incessantly, affectionately and in anger. Literally obscene, it means ‘big balls’. El Pedagogico is the Instituto Pedagogico, the Teacher Training Institute in Valparaiso. The Lebu was a ship used by the military as a prison during the military coup. Milico is slang for military. The tanquetazo was the attempted coup carried out by a tank regiment in June 1973.

1978 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benny Pollack

It is common knowledge that, prior to the military coup of 1973, Chile was the only Latin American country to have strong workers' political parties of the European type. Many reasons have been given for this phenomenon, but it is clear that Chile has been the only country in Latin-America to allow the development of Marxist parties with strong appeal and a strong following, within the framework of what could be called liberal, democratic processes. Up to 1970, the electoral force of the Socialist and Communist Parties in Chile oscillated between 20 and 30 per cent of the total national electorate. This rose to more than 40 per cent during 1975.


2005 ◽  
Vol 44 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 283-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hélgio Trindade

The article analyzes the development of social sciences in Brazil from a historical-sociological standpoint as seen through the construction of three disciplines: sociology, anthropology and political science. Beginning with the political and cultural context and the pre-sociology “essayism” phase, the author outlines the initial foundation and institutionalization of the social sciences (1934-64), which started with the foundation of the University of São Paulo and ended with the military coup d’état in 1964. He then goes on to analyze the crisis of the “Populist Republic” and the impact of the ideological radicalization on the social sciences, with an emphasis on the paradox of their simultaneous professionalization and consolidation through research and teaching under the military dictatorship (1965-83). Finally, the author turns to the democratic transition that ended in the “New Republic” (1984-2003), stressing the nationalization of the social sciences and the parallel diversification and split between teaching and research. The analysis of the three historical periods addresses the dynamics of the social sciences and their relationship with the central and the federal states, the hierarchy of disciplines, the dominant topics and international exchange. In conclusion, the author raises the question that is fundamental for the future, that of the crisis of national and international funding for the social sciences.


2008 ◽  
Vol 34 (S1) ◽  
pp. 21-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
COSTAS M. CONSTANTINOU

This interview was conducted over the Internet between February and April 2006. Armand Mattelart is Emeritus Professor of Information and Communication Sciences at the University of Paris VIII. From 1962 to 1973 he was Professor of Sociology of Population and Communication at the Catholic University of Chile, Santiago, and United Nations expert in social development. During the Popular Unity period (1970–73), he worked with the Government of President Salvador Allende until the military coup of September 1973, when he was expelled from Chile. Between 1975 and 1982, he taught at the University of Paris VII and Paris VIII, and, between 1983 and 1997, as founding member of the Communications Department at the University of Rennes 2 (Haute-Bretagne). He has carried out numerous research and teaching missions in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. His research interests include communication theory and history, media studies and international communication. He has authored and co-authored numerous books, translated into many languages, including: Advertising International: The Privatization of Public Space (1991); Mapping World Communication: War, Progress, Culture (1994), The Invention of Communication (1996), Networking the World 1794–2000 (2000), The Information Society: An Introduction (2003), and, with Michèle Mattelart, Rethinking Media Theory: Signposts and New Directions (1992); The Carnival of Images: Brazilian Television Fiction (1990) and Theories of Communication: A Short Introduction (1998). His most recent book, published in French, is: La Globalisation de la Surveillance: Aux Origines de l’Ordre Sécuritaire (September 2007).


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff D. Staiger

This poster looks at the circulation rate for literary primary texts, which constitute a unique area of collecting in academic libraries: while they do not in most cases meet immediate research needs, it is assumed that libraries ought to acquire them, for reasons including future research needs, preservation of the cultural record, and the ability of members of the intellectual community to stay current, those these remain primarily tacit. The circulation trends of contemporary literary works in ten areas of literature (English, American, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Latin American, Chinese, Japanese, and Russian) over the past twenty years at the University of Oregon Knight Library are presented and the circulation turnover rate (CTR), for each of these subject areas are presented. Sample graphs allow for the comparison of circulation rates and numbers of books across time, and serve as examples of the utility of such visualizations of the numbers. The key question raised by the study is what makes a good CTR for a particular region of the collection? The poster concludes by summarizing the considerations that bear on the interpretation of the CTR as an index of how the collection is “working.”


Author(s):  
Mike Gonzalez

Latin America’s communist parties were shaped by the Soviet Union’s political priorities up to 1945. This sparked debate with those that emphasized the specificity of Latin American conditions, notably the Peruvian Marxist Mariátegui. The Cuban Revolution of 1959 launched a new continental strategy, based on the guerrilla warfare strategies advocated by Che Guevara. By the late 1960s, these had failed. The election of Salvador Allende to the Chilean presidency in 1970 briefly suggested an electoral strategy to socialism, until it was crushed in the military coup of 1973. Nicaragua’s Sandinista Revolution opened new hopes for a Central American revolution, but this movement was destroyed with the active support of the U.S.. In 1994 the Zapatista rebellion in Mexico signalled a new phase of resistance against neo-liberalism and a rising tide of new social movements carried Left governments to power in what President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela dubbed the era of ‘twenty-first-century socialism’.


1994 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 43-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Korkut Boratav ◽  
Oktar Türel ◽  
Erinç Yeldan

The economic and political crisis which Turkey faced during 1977-1980 was resolved by an orthodox stabilization program adopted early in 1980, immediately followed by conventional structural adjustment measures and the military coup realized on September of the same year. The Turkish experience with orthodox stabilization and structural adjustment incorporates a number of specificities and it will be useful to recall them briefly.First of all, the striking element of continuity in basic economic policy orientation which lasted from 1980 up till 1089 without any significant reversals should be emphasized. The personal role of Turgut Özal as Vice Premier in charge of the economy during 1980-1982 under the military governments and Prime Minister during 1984-1991, was a determining factor in this respect. Reversals and hesitations as observed in Latin American experiences due to differences between rival monetarist schools or between populist and right wing political groupings played practically no role for almost ten years in Turkey. The political pressures which resulted in a switch back to populism in 1989 —a theme to be investigated in this paper— marked, in our view, a drastic shift away from the policy model adopted in 1980.


1972 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 399-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles D. Corbett

The Latin American military is a complex institution in a complex society. It probably has always been, but in the past the dynamics acting upon the change versus order equation have allowed new structural relationships to be worked out over extended periods of time, relatively free from ideological passions and exogenous influences. That time has passed. Probably in no other region of the world are military establishments undergoing the degree of institutional selfexamination and mission redefinition as are the armies of Latin America today. They have neither the development-oriented self-confidence of the armies of the “new” nations, nor the threat-oriented Weltanschauung of the military in the established countries. Previously acceptable roles—as moderators in the political process or guarantors of their own image of the country's traditions—are under examination not only in the society at large but in the heart of the military institutions.


2021 ◽  
pp. 497-509
Author(s):  
Yuriy A. Borisenok ◽  

In 2017–2020 The Center for Eastern European Studies of the University of Warsaw has published four voluminous volumes of the serial edition “Poles in Belarus” edited by the historian Tadeusz Gawin. The books reflect the results of a large-scale Polish-Belarusian scientific project, in the course of which Polish and Belarusian historians focused their attention on the problems of history that are urgent for both countries, first of all, of the twentieth century. In particular, separate volumes and scientific conferences preceding them were devoted to the Polish and Belarusian ideas of state independence in 1918–2018 and the military action of 1920 against the backdrop of political changes in the twentieth century. The uniqueness of the serial publication is that historians from Belarusian state universities and research institutes actively participated in it; this practice, in the context of a sharp deterioration in Polish-Belarusian political relations, has already become a thing of the past.


Author(s):  
Brian Loveman

Despite the common identification of Chile as “exceptional” among Latin American nations, the military played a key role in 20th-century Chilean politics and continues to do so in the first decades of the 21st century. Both 20th-century constitutions were adopted under military tutelage, after military coups: two coups—1924–1925 (the 1925 Constitution) and the military coup in 1973 (the 1980 constitution). A successful coup in 1932 established the short-lived “Chilean Socialist Republic.” Infrequent but sometimes serious failed military coups decisively influenced the course of Chilean politics: 1912, 1919, 1931–1932 (several), 1933, 1935, 1936, 1938, 1939, 1948, 1954, 1969, June 1973, 1986 (“coup within the coup” against Augusto Pinochet by air force officers), and others. Monographic and article-length histories of each of these events exist detailing their rationale and eventual failure. Severe political polarization in the context of the post-Cuban Revolution Cold War wave of military coups (1961–1976) in Latin America resulted in the breakdown of the Chilean political system in 1973. U.S. support for a military coup to oust the elected socialist president exacerbated the internal political strife. When a military junta ousted socialist president Salvador Allende in 1973, the military leaders claimed that they had ousted the Allende government to rescue Chilean democracy from the threat of international communism and civil war, and to restore the 1925 Constitution and the rule of law In 1973, the armed forces established a dictatorship that lasted almost 17 years and imposed a new constitution that is still in place in 2020 (with amendments). During this period (1973–1990), military officers occupied ministerial posts in the presidential cabinet, a military junta (Junta de Gobierno) acted as the legislature, and much of the public administration was militarized. Massive human rights violations took place involving all three branches of the armed forces and the national police (carabineros). After a plebiscite that rejected continued rule by General Augusto Pinochet and elections in 1989, the country returned to civilian government in March 1990. From 1990 until 2020 the country experienced gradual “normalization” of civil–military relations under elected civilian governments. After 1998, the threat of another military coup and reestablishment of military government largely disappeared. Constitutional reforms in 2005 reestablished much (but not all) of civilian control over defense and security policy and oversight of the armed forces. Nevertheless, reorganization of defense and security policymaking remained salient political issues and the armed forces continued to play an important role in national politics, policymaking, and internal administration.


Author(s):  
Thiago Lima Nicodemo ◽  
Mateus Henrique de Faria Pereira ◽  
Pedro Afonso Cristovão dos Santos

The founding of the first universities in the first decades of the 20th century in Brazil emerged from a context of public education reforms and expansion that modified the relationship between intellectuals and the public sphere in Brazil. The representation of national pasts was the object of prolific public debate in the social sciences and literature and fine arts through social and historical essays, pushed mostly from the 1920’s to the 1950’s, such as Gilberto Freyre’s, The Master and the Slaves (Casa Grande e Senzala, 1936) and Sérgio Buarque de Holanda’s Roots of Brazil (Raízes do Brasil, 1936). Just after the 1950s, universities expanded nationally, and new resources were available for academic and scientific production, such as libraries, archives, scientific journals, and funding agencies (namely CNPQ, CAPES and FAPESP). In the field of history, these effects would have a greater impact in the 1960s and 1970s with the consolidation of a National Association of History, the debate over curricula and required content, and the systematization of graduate programs (thanks to the University Reform of 1968, during the military dictatorship). Theses, dissertations, and monographs gradually gained ground as long social essays lost their prestige, seen as not befitting the standards of disciplinary historiography as defined in the graduate programs such as a wider empirical ground and more accurate time frames and scopes. Through their writing in more specialized formats, which moved away from essays and looked into the great Brazilian historical problems, historians played an important role in the resistance against the authoritarian regime (1964–1985) and, above all, contributed to a debate on the role of silenced minorities regarding redemocratization.


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